JASMINE's THOUGHTS on The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice

Genre:

Adult

Paranormal/Horror Romance

Series:

The Wolf Gift Chronicles, #1

Publish Date:

February 14, 2012

Publisher:

Knopf

Synopsis:

The time is the present.

The place, the rugged coast of northern California. A bluff high above the Pacific. A grand mansion full of beauty and tantalizing history set against a towering redwood forest.

A young reporter on assignment from the San Francisco Observer. . . an older woman, welcoming him into her magnificent, historic family home that he has been sent to write about and that she must sell with some urgency . . . A chance encounter between two unlikely people . . . an idyllic night—shattered by horrific unimaginable violence. . .The young man inexplicably attacked—bitten—by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness . . . A violent episode that sets in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation as the young man, caught between ecstasy and horror, between embracing who he is evolving into and fearing who—what—he will become, soon experiences the thrill of the wolf gift.

As he resists the paradoxical pleasure and enthrallment of his wolfen savagery and delights in the power and (surprising) capacity for good, he is caught up in a strange and dangerous rescue and is desperately hunted as “the Man Wolf,” by authorities, the media and scientists (evidence of DNA threaten to reveal his dual existence). . . As a new and profound love enfolds him, questions emerge that propel him deeper into his mysterious new world: questions of why and how he has been given this gift; of its true nature and the curious but satisfying pull towards goodness; of the profound realization that there are others like him who may be watching—guardian creatures who have existed throughout time and may possess ancient secrets and alchemical knowledge and throughout it all, the search for salvation for a soul tormented by a new realm of temptations, and the fraught, exhilarating journey, still to come, of being and becoming, fully, both wolf and man.

        

     

  

~~~~~

The Wolf Chronicles series:

 

(covers link to Goodreads)

         

      

The Wolf Gift Book Launch & Signing on 02/17/2012

Book Signing w/ Anne Rice & Christopher Rice 11/02/2013

~~~~~

**About the Author**

1941-2021

Anne Rice (born Howard Allen Frances O'Brien) is a best-selling American author of gothic, supernatural, historical, erotica, and later religious themed books. Best known for The Vampire Chronicles, her prevailing thematical focus is on love, death, immortality, existentialism, and the human condition. She was married to poet Stan Rice for 41 years until his death in 2002. Her books have sold nearly 100 million copies, making her one of the most widely read authors in modern history.

She uses the pseudonym Anne Rampling for adult-themed fiction (i.e., erotica) and A.N. Roquelaure for fiction featuring sexually explicit sado-masochism.

Stay connected with Anne Rice

       

~~~~~

***My Thoughts***

Note: This Review contains NO spoilers

 

(Reviewed August 13, 2021)

I finally got to reading Anne Rice's new book, The Wolf Gift. Well known for her gothic horror novels, such as the famous Interview with the Vampire, Anne Rice takes on werewolf lore. Again, when I picked up the book, I read a variety of mixed book reviews on Goodreads. Although she is known for her gothic horror, The Wolf Gift is a far departure from her vampire novels. As in her vampire novels, the place is New Orleans, but this time, she takes it to the west coast to Northern California. Again, I picked up this book with a bit of excitement because it was written by Anne Rice!! C'mon!! Since I was first introduced to Anne Rice's writings when I read Interview with the Vampire, I have been eager to read her books. Mind you, I haven't read all her novels, but the ones I have read, so far, has taken me on exciting and thought provoking journeys. Including her Christianity days, I read her Christ the Lord Out of Egypt novel. She opened the door to the possibilities of what could have happened. I even enjoyed that read. I just adore her descriptive writing. She can easily whisk her readers to the places where her novels take place...as I was when I read The Wolf Gift. If you're looking for that supernatural horror/action, then do not expect this novel to be it. It dives more into the philosophical challenges that the hero struggles with after he is bitten.

The Wolf Gift tells the story of Reuben Golding, a young reporter with a poetic and literary heart, is assigned to do a story on the famous home of Felix Nideck. High in the bluffs above the Pacific, the mansion is surrounded with the beauty and the mesmerizing history of the Nideck family which sits next to a towering redwood forest. It is here that our hero, on this fateful night, was bitten by some unseen wolf-like creature. After surviving a night of such savagery, Reuben embarks on a journey of transformation as he struggles to find answers to what he has become.

This thought provoking story between man and beast had me turning the pages through Reuben's exhilarating journey of accepting what he has become and the responsibilities that comes with it. In addition to Reuben's struggle, he seems to have found someone to share this struggle with. Someone who was able to understand him and accept him as he is. Yes, a love story did develop and grow. On the other hand, to some extent, the dialogue between Reuben and his brother, Jim, turned into a religious philosophical discussion. Because of this, Reuben's internal turmoil between his conscience and his wolf instincts made it difficult for Reuben to understand the changes he was going through.

All in all, I enjoyed Anne Rice's luscious description of Northern California, as if I was transported to those redwood forests. I would not hold high expectations on reading a typical werewolf novel, since Anne Rice took The Wolf Gift in to another direction. I'd say keep an open mind. It seems to me to be a story of struggle.. be it religious, philosophical, physical and/or emotional. Anne Rice takes us on Reuben's journey on finding himself and accepting it. I found it to be a good read.

My rating:

The Wolves of Midwinter by Anne Rice & The Heavens Rise by Christopher Rice Signing

One place I know and always go to for amazing book events/signings is Barnes & Noble at The Grove! So, on this particular day, my daughter, Mariah, and I went to a book signing featuring Anne Rice and Christopher Rice. Both promoting their new books, The Wolves of Midwinter and The Heavens Rise, respectively. Although it was only a book signing event, we enjoy seeing our favorite and new authors again and again.

Thanks to Lita Weissman and the staff of Barnes & Noble, every event that they have coordinated are amazing, fun and memorable. So, for fun author events and then some, check out the events calendar! But, of course, events aren't limited to just that store...just check the events calendar at the nearest store.

On this day, this book signing featured two amazing authors, Anne Rice and Christopher Rice.

Let's start with Anne's latest book release, the second book of 

The Wolf Gift Chronicles...

In Anne Rice's surprising and compelling bestselling novel, the first of her strange and mythic imagining of the world of wolfen powers, readers were spellbound as Rice conjured up a daring new world set against the wild and beckoning California coast.

Now in her new novel, as lush and romantic in detail and atmosphere as it is sleek and steely in storytelling, Anne Rice takes us once again to the rugged coastline of Northern California, to the grand mansion at Nideck Point, and further explores the unearthly education of her transformed Man Wolf. 

The novel opens on a cold, gray landscape. It is the beginning of December. Oak fires are burning in the stately flickering hearths of Nideck Point. It is Yuletide.

For Reuben Golding, now infused with the Wolf Gift and under the loving tutelage of the Morphenkinder, this promises to be a Christmas like no other...

The Yuletide season, sacred to much of the human race, has been equally sacred to the Man Wolves, and Reuben soon becomes aware that they, too, steeped in their own profound rituals, will celebrate the ancient Midwinter festival deep within the verdant richness of Nideck forest.

From out of the shadows of Nideck comes a ghost -- tormented, imploring, unable to speak yet able to embrace and desire with desperate affection... As Reuben finds himself caught up with --and drawn to--the passions and yearnings of this spectral presence, and as the swirl of preparations reaches a fever pitch for the Nideck town Christmas festival of music and pageantry, astonishing secrets are revealed; secrets that tell of a strange netherworld, of spirits other than the Morphenkinder, centuries old, who inhabit the dense stretches of redwood and oak that surround the magnificent house at Nideck Point, "ageless ones" who possess their own fantastical ancient histories and who taunt with their dark magical powers...

Praise for The Wolves of Midwinter

"I devoured these pages... As solid and engaging as anything she has written since her early Vampire Chronicles fiction."

- Alan Cheuse, The Boston Globe

"A delectable cocktail of old-fashioned lost-race adventure, shape-shfting, and suspense."

- Elizabeth Hand, The Washington Post

"Vintage Anne Rice--a lushly written, gothic...metaphysical tale. This time, with werewolves."

- Alexandra Alter, The Wall Street Journal

"Written with compelling modernity...A strong--and welcome--return to the monster mythology that made Anne Rice famous."

- Rob LeFebvre, Shelf Awareness

Available Now

   

Check out Book 1 of The Wolf Gift Chronicles...

About the Author

Anne Rice was born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. She holds a Master of Arts Degree in English and Creative Writing from San Francisco State University, as well as a Bachelor's Degree in Political Science. Anne has spent more of her life in California than in New Orleans, but New Orleans is her true home and provides the back drop for many of her famous novels. The French Quarter provided the setting for her first novel, Interview with the Vampire. And her ante-bellum house in the Garden District was the fictional home of her imaginary Mayfair Witches.

She is the author of over 30 books, most recently the Toby O'Dare novels Of Love and Evil, and Angel Time; the memoir,Called Out of Darkness; and her two novels about Jesus, Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt and Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana. (Anne regards Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana as her best novel.)

Anne publicly broke with organized religion in July of 2010 on moral grounds, affirming her faith in God, but refusing any longer to be called "Christian." The story attracted surprising media attention, with Rice's remarks being quoted in stories all over the world.

Anne is very active on her Facebook Fan Page and has over 745,000 followers. She answers questions every day on the page, and also posts on a variety of topics, including literature, film, music, politics, religion, and her own writings. She welcomes discussion there on numerous topics.

Her latest novel, The Wolves of Midwinter, a sequel to The Wolf Gift and part of a werewolf series set in Northern California in the present time, was published on October 15, 2013. In these books --- The Wolf Gift Chronicles -- Anne returns to the classic monsters and themes of supernatural literature, similar to those she explored in her Vampire Chronicles, and tales of the Mayfair Witches. Her new "man wolf" hero, Reuben Golding, is a talented young man in his twenties who suddenly discovers himself in possession of werewolf powers that catapult him into the life of a comic book style super hero. How Reuben learns to control what he is, how he discovers others who possess the same mysterious "wolf gift," and how he learns to live with what he has become --- is the main focus of the series.

Her first novel, Interview with the Vampire, was published in 1976 and has gone on to become one of the best-selling novels of all time. She continued her saga of the Vampire Lestat in a series of books, collectively known as The Vampire Chronicles, which have had both great mainstream and cult followings. Interview with the Vampire was made into a motion picture in 1994, directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise, Kirsten Dunst and Antonio Banderas. Anne's novel, Feast of All Saints about the free people of color of ante-bellum New Orleans became a Showtime mini series in 2001 and is available now on DVD. The script for the mini series by John Wilder was a faithful adaptation of the novel. 

Anne Rice is also the author of other novels, including The Witching Hour, Servant of the Bones, Merrick, Blackwood Farm, Blood Canticle, Violin, and Cry to Heaven. 

She lives in Palm Desert, California, but misses her home in New Orleans. She hopes to obtain a pied a terre in the French Quarter there some time in the near future.

Stay connected with Anne Rice

Website

   

On to our other featured author Christopher Rice and his latest book release...

New York Times bestselling author Christopher Rice brilliantly conjures he shadowed terrors of the Louisiana bayou--where three friends confront a deadly, ancient evil rising to the surface--in this intense and atmospheric new supernatural thriller.

Synopsis

It's been a decade since the Delongpre family vanished near Bayou Rabineaux, and still no one can explain the events of that dark and sweltering night. No one except Niquette Delongpre, the sole survivor who ran away from the mangled stretch of guardrail on Highway 22 where the impossible occurred...and kept on running. Who left behind her best friends, Ben and Anthem, to save them from her newfound capacity for destruction...and who alone knows the source of her very bizarre--and very deadly--abilities: an isolated strip of swampland called Elysium.

An Accomplished surgeon, Niquette's father dreamed of transforming the dense acreage surrounded by murky waters into a palatial compound befitting the name his beloved wife gave to it, Elysium: "the final resting place for the heroic and virtuous." Then, Ten years ago, construction workers dug into a long-hidden well, one that snaked down into the deep, black waters of the Louisiana swamp and stirred something that had been there for centuries--a microscopic parasite that perverts the mind and corrupts the body.

Niquette is living proof that things done can't be undone. Nothing can bring her parents back. And nothing can save her. But as Niquette, Ben, and Anthem uncover the truth of a devastating pararsite that has the potential to alter the future of humankind, Niquette grasps the most chilling truths of all: someone else has been infected too. And unlike her, this man is not content to live in the shadows. He is intent to use his newfound powers for one reason only: revenge.

Praise for The Heavens Rise

"Christopher Rice has written an amazing horror novel with more twists and turns than a mountain road. You'll think you know your destination...but you'll be wrong."

- Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dead Ever After

"Christopher Rice is a magician. This brilliant, subtly destabilizing novel inhales, wickedness and corruption and exhales delight and enchantment. Rice executes his turns, reversals, and surprises with the pace and timing of a master. The Heavens Rise would not let me stop reading it--that's how compelling it is."

- Peter Straub, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Mrs. God

"Christopher Rice never disappoints with his vivid people and places and masterful prose. He will hold you captive under his spell as his images and emotions become your own."

- Patricia Cornwell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Bone Bed

"Christopher Rice has crafted a rich and haunting world in The Heavens Rise. This story of a tormented family and the events that have led to their destruction and onward into the future is tense, tight, disturbing, and made very real by a very talented author who obviously knows his way around the Big Easy. An excellent read!"

- Robert McCammon, #1 New York Times bestselling author of I Travel By Night

Available Now

   

Check out the amazing book trailer!

About the Author

By the age of 30, Christopher Rice had published four New York Times bestselling thrillers, received a Lambda Literary Award and been declared one of People Magazine's Sexiest Men Alive. His latest novel is The Heavens Rise, a supernatural thriller about a young woman who is exposed to a mysterious parasite in the Louisiana swamp that gives her the power to control minds and unleash living nightmares. Together with his best friend, bestselling novelist Eric Shaw Quinn, Christopher recently launched his own Internet radio show. An outrageous and irreverent comedy variety program, The Dinner Party Show with Christopher Rice & Eric Shaw Quinn streams 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at TheDinnerPartyShow.com, with new live episodes premiering Sunday evening at 8 PM Easter, 5 PM Pacific.

Christopher's first novel, A Density of Souls, was published when he was just 22. The controversial bestseller was greeted with a landslide of media attention, much of it due the fact that Rice's mother is a legendary vampire chronicler who shares his last name. He served as a contributing columnist to The Advocate for many years and his additional criticisms and witticisms have been featured in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Salon.com and his own Facebook page, which currently hails over 100,000 subscribers. The members of the InsightOut Book Club selected his novel Blind Fall as one of the best novels of 2008, and his noir thriller Light Before Day was hailed as a "book of the year" by mega-best selling thriller novelist (and Jack Reacher creator), Lee Child. His short fiction has been featured in the anthologies Thriller and Los Angeles Noir. He recently served on the board of directors of the West Hollywood Library Fund, which was instrumental in securing private funds to build a brand new state-of-the-art library in the heart of the city he now calls home.

Stay connected with Christopher Rice

Website

The Dinner Party Show

   

Check out more of Christopher Rice's books...

   

 

Just like last year, many fans of these amazing authors lined up throughout the store to meet them and have their books signed...even chat for a brief moment with them.

The Wolves of Midwinter

The Heavens Rise

Christopher Rice & Anne Rice signing

Anne Rice

Christopher Rice

In addition to these amazing authors signing for many fans, Becket (Anne's assistant) also had fans wanting his signing as well on his books. How awesome was that! Not only did we have two authors, there was a third that fans enjoyed meeting!

Becket

View the full album at: Movies, Shows & Books on Facebook